Based on five years of participant observation in a juvenile court, this study focuses on
the ways in which professional groups attempted to gain control of a computerized
information system so that they could preserve their professional autonomy, maintain
control over their work, and give the appearance of a job well done. When legal
professionals attempted to use the computerized information system to control the
work of the probation staff, probation officers developed a coordinated five-point
strategy to defuse this control effort. The probation officer strategy was successful;
ultimately, the computerized information system was physically removed from the
court. An explanation of this professional struggle takes both a theory ofprofessional
dominance and a resource dependence model, which focuses on the relationships of
professionals to their environments, into account.
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